Sleeping Beauty
by Snow Glows Blue
Summary: Dealing with exes is tricky at the best of times; when you've dated an enchantress, it doesn't help. Modern fantasy AU. (NOTE: have fixed chapters 2 and 3, don't know what was going on there but I'm sorry.)
1. Chapter 1

The spell shows no signs of going away on its own; if anything, it seems to be getting worse, Erestor going paler and thinner by the day.

They're at the seventy-three-hour mark, and Glorfindel is getting increasingly scared. At the moment he's working on one of the bracelets Erestor sells (he isn't as good at them as his friend but Erestor can't make them at the moment and somebody has to keep the store running) and he'd like to say the motion is helping but it isn't.

The door opens with a slight creak, and footsteps too light to be Elrond's pad across the floor. "Hello, Arwen," he says without turning around, because that's the game they play with each other.

Glorfindel still doesn't turn around but he knows she's pouting. She never can surprise him, unless he lets her, which he usually doesn't.

"Dad says there's food downstairs." Glorfindel's about to protest, but Arwen follows it up with, "And he says you need to eat more than Erestor needs somebody hovering over him the whole time, and that if you try to say you aren't hungry he'll come up here and drag you down by your hair."

Glorfindel smiles and doesn't mean it. "Your father does think of everything."

He does turn around then, and picks Arwen up as he walks downstairs and leaves a sleeping Erestor behind.

X

It's too quiet.

Normally Erestor talks and Glorfindel listens — about new advances in cancer research, about new types of magic jewelry Erestor's thinking about trying out, about books he's read recently, about anything, really.

Normally, though, Erestor doesn't have a curse laid on him that they might not be able to take off.

There's a knock at the door, too light to be Elrond and too hesitant to be either of the twins. It sounds like the person on the other side isn't entirely certain whether they want to be heard.

"Come in," Glorfindel says, barely louder.

Lindir does, padding barefoot across the floor like a cat. "How long has it been?" he asks, sitting down on the bed. "Elrond called two days ago and I got another flight as fast as I could—"

His voice catches, which Glorfindel has never heard happen before, and Glorfindel knows Lindir hates being seen crying so he turns to face Erestor instead.

"It's been four days," he says. "Do you want some privacy?"

He turns back just long enough to see Lindir nod, then stands and leaves.

Lindir's home. He's going to kiss Erestor and Erestor's going to wake up and it'll all go back to normal, and that's a good thing and Glorfindel shouldn't feel jealous that they're together and he's alone.

He shouldn't, but he does.

X

Glorfindel next sees Lindir downstairs, four minutes later.

"It didn't work," Lindir says, and he runs out of Elrond's house before anyone can respond.

True Love's Kiss isn't working.

If Glorfindel thought he was scared before, he's terrified now.


	2. Chapter 2

Glorfindel has been expressly forbidden from entering Erestor's room, so instead he's sitting in the hallway, crosslegged on the floor like a small child.

Part of him doesn't trust Thranduil alone with Erestor — it's silly, but the feeling is still there. But Thranduil's the only resource they have at the moment, and Glorfindel can't afford to offer insult. Not if he cares about Erestor.

Thranduil opens the door. "You can come in now," he says, and vanishes again.

Glorfindel stands and and follows him, pretending he doesn't notice Lindir standing anxiously in the doorway for the same reason he pretended not to see him cry earlier. "What's up?" he asks, and his throat is unexpectedly dry.

"Fairly simple enchantment. You knew that." Thranduil is clipped and calm, not because he doesn't care but because that's how Thranduil is. "All you need to break it is true love's kiss, and as Erestor is in a committed relationship, that should be —" He breaks off as Lindir vanishes without a word, and looks questioningly at Glorfindel.

"Lindir is Erestor's partner," he says, as way of explanation. "And we already tried that."

Glorfindel has been banned from Erestor's room again, this time alongside a ban on "moping in the hallway like a kicked puppy waiting to be allowed back in on a snowy night", or at least, that was how Elladan had phrased it when relaying the message.

So instead, he's downstairs in the kitchen, because Glorfindel might not be able to make an anklet that lets its wearer run faster or a ring that goes cold when there's danger or a necklace that helps a girl with asthma breathe, but baking he can do.

In the oven there's a batch of brownies with a pain-relief spell baking into them, because Elrond's migraines have become entirely too frequent lately, and he's kneading bread dough that's completely mundane but he need to do something with his hands or he feels like he'll explode.

As far as he can tell, he's home alone except for Erestor — Arwen and the twins are at school and Elrond's working at the clinic downtown.

As far as he can tell, anyway, as that leaves Lindir unaccounted for.

Of course, as soon as he's thought that, there are footsteps down the stairs, just the correct volume and frequency to be Lindir. Glorfindel internally sighs; he'd been hoping to be left alone.

"Done crying?" he asks, more sharply that is really kind.

"For the time being, yes." Lindir is calm and collected, more so that Glorfindel has any right to expect his reaction would be. "Done pining?"

He forces a laugh. "For the time being, yes." Glorfindel turns to see Lindir sitting perched on the countertop in a too-large sweater that he recognizes as Erestor's, white-blonde hair falling out of its barrette. "What brings you down here?"

Lindir looks down at his knees. "I wanted to apologise. For getting in the way," and Glorfindel is about to ask what on Earth he's talking about when he adds, "with Erestor."

There's an awkward silence as Glorfindel still doesn't know what Lindir's talking about and Lindir clearly expects him to.

"He loves you," Lindir finally says, and he still won't look up. "I know he does, I've known for months. He I've seen him watching you when he doesn't think I'm looking. And he yells your name sometimes in bed."

The pause that follows is somehow less awkward than the one before; that doesn't make sense, but it's true.

"He loves you," Lindir says again. "I don't know if you love him back and I don't know if it matters, but if you care about Erestor at all, try."

And Lindir drops down from the counter and walks upstairs, more calmly than Glorfindel ever could.

The timer dings. He turns off the oven absentmindedly and stands there, his stomach churning and his mind more confused than it's been in years.


	3. Chapter 3

Erestor's room is too quiet.

Glorfindel's thought it before, but it's especially true now, now that he's got the gut-wrenching prospect of failure in front of him and quite possibly the most awkward conversation of the last four years behind, with the added bonus of his true love's life hanging in the balance.

Wonderful.

Erestor is beautiful; Glorfindel wishes he didn't notice it so acutely, but he does. It isn't the same type of beauty he has when he's awake, calm and elegant — it's softer, more delicate, and Glorfindel almost isn't thinking when he leans down and kisses him, just a light brush of lips on lips.

And underneath him, Erestor moves, not toward but away, and that hurts more than anything Glorfindel could imagine

(no that isn't true remember what the fire felt like)

until Erestor whimpers, softly enough that Glorfindel has to strain his ears to hear, his muscles stretched taut and his face twisted in pain. Glorfindel wraps one arm around his shoulders and holds him close, keeps him stable and warm; it seems that there is nothing else to do.

But Erestor's breath comes quick and rough, and Glorfindel doesn't really think he's helping that much.

Elrond finds them like that an hour later, Erestor curled against Glorfindel with his eyes squeezed tight and Glorfindel wrapped around him whispering the same nonsense that Elrond whispers to Elladan and Elrohir when they dream about their mother, and quietly Elrond slips away.

They'd want privacy, he knows, and he locks the door behind him.

He doesn't tell Lindir. Lindir is already aware, and if he isn't, Elrond doesn't want to be the one to hurt him.

Erestor doesn't really become aware until after Elrond leaves, and when he opens his eyes all he can see is Glorfindel.

Something seems off about that. But he files the thought under things I don't have the time/energy to do right now and resolves to try again when there isn't somebody inside his skull attempting to chisel their way out.

Fuck. Everything hurts, and that's not even taking his mental state into account; Erestor hasn't run a check yet (normally he'd never let something like that slide but he's in splitting pain at the moment and willing to forgive himself) but he's sure it's awful. _Fuck._ What was Serena thinking? Magic like that's illegal for a good reason. _FUCK._

It's getting bad enough now that he can barely think, so he doesn't try; instead, Erestor presses his head against Glorfindel's chest and closes his eyes again and just prays to Sakae — who may or may not be listening but the other deities out there definitely aren't — that Serena didn't mess with his mind too much.

_We don't understand the human mind, but the human mind is what we use to understand things, isn't that funny?_ says Elrohir's small voice in the back of Erestor's mind, just before he falls back asleep. It had seemed funny at the time, but it doesn't now. Nothing really does.


	4. Chapter 4

"I talked to Lindir," Erestor says, unexpectedly quiet, but it breaks the silence in a way that is odd though not unwelcome. "He says he understands, and I'm sure he does, but it still feels - cruel would be the word, I guess, to start something new so quickly."

Glorfindel is quiet, hands moving silently over a rolling pin. This is how it is between them, Erestor talking and Glorfindel listening, and except for the topic it feels like everything is back to normal.

It isn't. It won't be for a while. But that's how it feels.

There's another silence, after Erestor's made it clear that he's finished talking but before he says anything else. Glorfindel doesn't press; the last thing Erestor needs is something else he feels like he can't control.

"I," Erestor says, and stops. "I tried to tried to love him, really I did."

Glorfindel feels very faintly sick. "I know you did," he says, because Erestor is many things but he's never been cruel, and hopes that his friend will drop the topic.

Erestor does, wonder of wonders, and falls silent again. There isn't really anything to say that wouldn't make things more awkward than the are.

Glorfindel isn't really sure how he feels. Not about Erestor, but about the position they're in - on a knife's edge, about to fall any moment. Which way is better? Which way is more likely? It's the type of question that he'd normally ask Erestor, but they're lost together this time.

"Did Serena know what she was doing?" Erestor wonders after a moment, talking to fill the silence as much as anything else. "I don't think she would have thought it through that well. But she managed to effectively -" He stops, yet again, though Glorfindel can guess what he was going to say. _Ruin my life,_ or maybe _ruin things with Lindir._ Erestor wouldn't want to say either one; saying it aloud makes it real.

"I doubt it," he answers. "Like you said, she never was one for thinking things through. She probably just wanted to cause some pain and get out."

And she'd succeeded in that. Mind magic is illegal in most countries, and for a good reason too: it is possibly the most invasive thing that could ever be done to a person. It's been four weeks since he woke and Erestor still seems shaken.

Glorfindel wishes there were something he could do. Something besides holding Erestor at night and waking him up when he starts flailing; something that would actually help rather than just preventing things from getting worse.

But there isn't. He knows there isn't, because there wasn't when Celebrian was attacked and there wasn't when Elros died and there wasn't when Gondolin burned down. He knows all too well what it is to be helpless.

Erestor is looking at him like he holds the world in cupped hands, and there is _nothing_ that Glorfindel can do to help him.

It's the worst thing Glorfindel has ever felt. The fire included.


End file.
